The manager of Roma delivered a candid and characteristically unique evaluation of his team’s performance away from home this season, where they’ve secured just one victory. Prior to the Udinese match on Sunday, Mourinho expressed his expectations for more effort from his players.

“I’m not sure the team has given less than it could give,” Mourinho stated to reporters, “But we have to give more. With these fans and this club you must not put limits on yourself, you must always give more. We have had bad results and some bad performances, yes, but lack of professionalism and respect for people never. We have to give something more, though.”

“At home we usually manage to do that, even in the last minutes, but away from home we lack some mentality. I’ve always liked the antagonism of playing away from home better. There are people here who like the comfort of home more: when they go out they miss their mom, dad, grandma baking.”

Roma’s strong performance at home has been pivotal in their pursuit of European spots in Serie A. Supporters are hopeful that Mourinho’s traditional motivational tactic of criticizing his own players will ignite improvement in the team’s struggles away from the capital.

This afternoon, I Giallorossi will host Udinese at the Stadio Olimpico. Their next opportunity to prove themselves away from home comes when they face Servette on Thursday, aiming to secure advancement to the Europa League knockout phase.